


I will always protect you (even if you lock me up)

by Miraculous_Voltron



Series: Voltron Legendary Defender (Miraculous_Voltron) [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bcs i suck at writing gore and fight scenes, Fluff, Galra Keith, Galra Keith (Voltron), Galra!Keith, Happy Ending, I was gonna make this a short one, Keith & Shiro is platonic, Not Beta Read, Reveal, Transformation, platonic fluff, the violence isn't very graphic, whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 08:21:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11032323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miraculous_Voltron/pseuds/Miraculous_Voltron
Summary: Keith starts changing, but he doesn't tell the team anything. Big mistake. They find him as a galra in his room and they lock him up in a cell. The castle is under attack and Keith can't just sit in his cell while his team is in danger.Or: Keith is suddenly a galra, he breaks out of a cell to help the people who put him there. Oh and they hate him.





	I will always protect you (even if you lock me up)

**Author's Note:**

> I meant for this to be around 2500 words. Whoops.

What was happening to him? One moment he was minding his own business and the next there’s this weird itch on his hand. He scratched it, but instead of the satisfying feeling you usually get, a weird sensation spread over the back of his hand. He kept talking to Hunk, as he had been the last 20 minutes, when he looked down. He looked down at his hands, only to find his skin tattered, some of it hanging from his hand, where some of it was still connected to him. But what terrified Keith the most, was the purple color that had been revealed the places where his skin had peeled off.

He had made an excuse up for Hunk (he said he had to go to the toilet), just so he could examine the weird phenomenon without the yellow paladin noticing anything. He shoved his hands in his pocket, trying to look non-suspicious. But that was pretty hard considering he practically chose to walk where all of the others were standing, and not stopping to engage in the different conversations. He saw Shiro make a move to walk over to him, but Keith practically ran into his bedroom and hastily locked the door after him. He didn’t want the others to know about this, not before he even knew what was going on himself.

Keith examined his hand again, this time taking a closer look. The skin hanging from his hand reminded him of when a snake sheds its skin. He carefully peeled the skin of that was already loose, and then proceeded to take a closer look at the places where the skin had fallen off. It was obviously not normal to be purple anywhere on your body unless you have a hickey or a bruise (which is almost the same thing), But Keith had never heard of anyone's skin peeling off as a result of this. He slowly raised his other hand to touch the purple spot, and found himself surprised of its softness. He took the hand even closer to his eyes, only to see the itty bitty small strands of fur that was all over the purple area on his hand. What the hell? At least the area was where he would usually have his fingerless gloves covering it.

He would find out what to do later, he had to try and act normal so the others wouldn't start getting suspicious. He pulled out his fingerless gloves from his pocket, and took them on. They barely covered the purple area, but it was all he could do for now. He should probably just go to the training room, he had been a bit out of balance the last couple of days, due to the extreme headaches he'd been dealing with. He passed Shiro on the way, and since he literally ran away from him before, he chose to stop and talk with him.

“Hi Shiro, sorry about before man, but my bladder was full and the toilet was calling me” Keith said awkwardly. He scratched his head, had that been too much information?

“Totally okay” Shiro snickered a bit, but stopped fast, the serious look returning, “I just wanted to ask if you were interested in training with me?”

What a coincidence, well not really, since both he and Shiro used a lot of their time on training, and training together was also normal by now. Their fighting styles were very different, so it was a challenge to fight each other. Keith were fast and agile while Shiro was strong and had a great endurance.

“I was just heading over to train, so feel free to come along” Keith said, “but if you could start of easy it would be nice, I'm a bit out of balance” Shiro nodded, “I can do that” they then proceeded to the training room. Keith’s ears started feeling weird, almost like when he had pulled a muscle in his arm that one time, he ignored it. No one else was in the training room, and it was weirdly quiet. Shiro walked over and took one of the training weapons, he chose a staff. Keith took a training sword. Shiro moved towards him, sticking the staff out, obviously trying to hit him in the chest, Keith jumped to the side and jabbed Shiro in the side with his weapon. Shiro turned around, while moving towards Keith, Keith lost his footing and ended up on the floor with Shiro’s staff’s end and his throat.

“You're right, you are a bit out of balance” Shiro said to him, then added “literally” Keith pulled a grimace at Shiro's bad humor. He got up shakily, but he felt like he was going to be sick and his sight blackened. He fell back into the floor, face first. “Keith?” Shiro said concerned, “are you okay?” “I dunno” Keith groaned, he flipped himself on the back, placed his hands on the floor, and pushed himself up into a sitting position. He lifted one arm, the other one still supporting his weight, and rubbed his eyes. Then he looked up at Shiro. Shiro's eyebrows was knitted closely together, worry overtaking me his features. “I think we should get you to your room so you can relax a bit” Shiro said, “I think you need it” Shiro offered his hand, Keith took it, and Shiro pulled him up from the floor, but he did it a little too fast.

Luckily, Shiro was prepared, he wrapped his arm around Keith's back, and took Keith's arm around his neck. Shiro grabbed the arm placed around his own neck so Keith wouldn't fall, He then began to walk, keeping a supporting hand on Keith's waist, they walked out of the training room and when they reached the hall where Keith's room where, they passed Pidge and Hunk, who looked worried. Keith did understand that. He normally wouldn't ask for help, ever, and when offered to him, he would decline the offer. If he had let anyone help him, then there was something very wrong with him. Keith's arm started gliding of Shiro's neck, Shiro's grip on it tightened and he hoisted Keith up again so he wouldn't fall on the way back. Keith closed his eyes, only hearing Shiro's clear footsteps and his own feet that dragged more along the floor. He heard his door open, and soon Shiro had laid him down on the bed.

“You should rest Keith, I'll have someone bring you food later” Shiro said, he offered a small smile before he walked out of the room and closed the door on his way out. Keith was left in his room exhausted but wanting to train. He sat up slowly, to be sure his sight wouldn't black out again. He looked at his fingerless gloves, panic setting in. He ripped it off to examine his hand once again. The skin had started falling off by itself now, how long would it be before all of his skin fell off? Keith groaned and fell back onto his bed, he felt the sleepiness take over his body and soon he was asleep.

~*~

Keith heard his door open, he flew out of the bed, took his fingerless glove and pulled it over his partially purple hand. Keith’s head pounded, he had moved way too fast. He collapsed back onto the bed, groaning loudly.

“Hey Keith, how are you holding up buddy?” It was Hunk. Keith moved his head to look at Hunk, and when their eyes met, he let out a long sigh as an answer to the question he’d been asked. Hunk approached him with a plate of the green goo, and placed the plate on the floor beside his bed. “Do you need a hug?” Hunk asked Keith. Keith snorted, typical Hunk behaviour. “No it’s okay Hunk, thank you for bringing me food though” Keith said, mustering his best smile to get Hunk to leave him alone. Hunk looked at him for a little bit longer. “Okay then I’ll leave you, get better soon!” Hunk walked out of the room, and the door shut behind him. He rubbed his ear, the weird feeling had returned, but it felt worse than it had earlier. It felt a lot like down one trying not to pull his ear off. Keith sat up once again and looked at the plate of green goo. He really didn’t feel like eating anything at the moment, but he knew he had to if he wanted a chance of recovering from whatever was wrong with him.

He bent down and picked the plate up with his right hand, it jiggled so much that Keith almost felt nauseous. He picked up the spoon and scooped up as much goo as the spoon could hold and stuffed it into his mouth, he pulled the spoon out, but it hit one of his teeth on the way, and Keith felt as the tooth fell out. What? Keith spat out the content of his mouth, and right there was his canine tooth. Why the hell did it fall out? Keith felt on his other teeth, and as he touched the other canine tooth, it just fell out as well. It didn’t even hurt. Keith examined the tooth he was holding in his hand, this could not be normal.

It didn’t look like anything was wrong with the tooth, it looked completely ordinary. Besides the fact that it had fallen out and was now in his hand But why the hell had it been loose enough for him to accidently make it fall out just by touching it? Keith examined every other teeth in his mouth, but the other teeth didn't seem to be loose at all. Keith yawned, and stretched his arms, he should probably sleep, he could investigate more about his teeth in the morning Keith rubbed his eyes, he was really tired. Keith pulled his blanket around himself, and quickly drowsed off again.

~*~

Keith woke up to the morning alarms ringing loudly, he groaned and rolled out of bed. He bit his own lip, but instead of feeling two places on his lips where the missing teeth was supposed to be, he felt something cut his lip instead. Had the the teeth falling out just been a part of his weird dreams that night? He looked around after the plate, it was on the floor by his bed. He crouched down to look at it, and right there in the green goo, was two of his teeth. Huh, it hadn't been a dream? But then what was the sharp things in his mouth? Keith took his canine teeth, dried them off on his pants and then hid them under his pillow so the others wouldn’t find them. Keith placed his hand on the wall, and slowly rose up from the floor again, then walked over to the mirror to examine what had cut his lip. He looked at himself in the mirror, and noticed that he had massive bags under his eyes, he did feel as tired as he looked. His eyes darted to his mouth and he slowly smiled at the mirror and in the place where there shouldn't be any teeth, there were new ones that was even longer and sharper than the previous ones. He stopped smiling and placed his finger on his lip and moved it up, and took another look at his new teeth. Who grows new teeth after losing them all once before? Keith poked at one of the teeth, which was stupid of him, the tooth pricked him and his finger started bleeding. He heard a knock on his door, and without giving him a chance to run back to the bed, it opened. It was Shiro.

“Why is it so dark in here” Shiro asked him. Dark? The lightning in the room looked normal to Keith. Without waiting for an answer from Keith, Shiro turned on the light. It suddenly got very bright in the room, and Keith had to squint just to be able to see anything.

“How are you Keith?” Shiro said, examining his physical appearance. “I still don’t feel good” Keith said, which was the truth. His ears hurt like hell. He slumped his shoulders so it looked more believable. He wanted Shiro to give him another day in bed so he could figure out what was happening to him. “I think you should rest another day Keith” Shiro said, then added “we can’t have one of the paladins falling sick” Keith sent Shiro an apologetic smile (without showing teeth) and muttered a small apology. Keith then proceeded to stumble back to the bed to lie down. He nuzzled his face down into the pillow and yawned. He usually wouldn’t put his hand over his mouth when yawning, but he didn’t want Shiro to notice his new canine teeth.

“I’ll leave now so you can get some more sleep, and I’ll remember to inform the others not to annoy you today” Shiro said. “And by the others, you mean Lance” Keith said, chuckling. Shiro smiled and nodded. Now when Keith thought about it, he hadn’t really interacted with the blue palladin the last few days. Shiro walked out and the door closed behind him. Keith got out of bed and turned of the light, he almost couldn’t see anything with it on, so sleeping with it on was not an option. As he laid down in his bed again, he felt like he was going to cry. What was happening to him? He had assured himself that whatever it was, it would go away. But now he wasn't so sure, it's not like the teeth would just go away all by themselves. Keith scratched his scalp, and if all of the other things hadn't been enough, then a big chunk of hair fell of Keith looked at his hand, there was a whole handful of hair that just fell out because he scratched his hair. Keith pulled a bit at some of his other hair, and it just fell out as well.

Had he caught some kind of deathly space disease? Keith scratched his arm and almost screamed, the skin on his arm fell off just like the skin had on his hand, and he could feel the furry purple skin(?) that had been revealed. This was not good, now the others would be able to see it, unless he wore his red jacket everywhere, even when training. That would maybe look weird to the others, so maybe he should find a long sleeved shirt instead. Keith started hyperventilating. He liked having things under control, both situations and his emotions. But right now, he had control over neither. What was he supposed to do? The others would notice eventually, it’s not like his teeth would shrink, and his skin surely wouldn’t just grow back over the purple furry splotches.

He tried to calm himself down. He was used to get panic attacks in the past, but had mastered how to prevent them. It felt as if a panic attack was on it’s way, that scared Keith. He hadn’t had one for several years. He pulled himself up in a sitting position, drawing his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. Then he started to count to ten, matching his breath to his slow counting of the numbers. As he reached ten, he could feel himself calming down a bit.

“It’s okay Keith” He tried to convince himself, “you’re okay” Somehow, the words didn’t mean anything when coming out of his mouth. It would be nice if there was someone else to assure him that everything was okay. But there weren’t anyone else, and that was entirely his own fault. He shook his head. Now was not the time for negative thoughts. He needed some more sleep. The best chance he had of recovering (without using the healing pod) was to get a lot of rest. Keith moved around for a bit, trying to get comfortable. Maybe he should take of his pants and jacket. Those particular pieces of clothing wasn’t exactly ideal to use as sleeping wear. He unbuttoned his pants and maneuvered himself out of them. Then he got of his jacket. That was a lot better, he curled up and drew the blanket all the way up to his ears. He yawned, and stretched his legs before returning to the comfortable position he had discovered. After a short amount of time, he fell asleep.

_Flowers were everywhere. Blue skies, crystal clear seas and beautiful green grass. Keith was lying down on his back, moving his arms and legs as if he were trying to make a snow angel in the tall strands of grass. He heard his own bubbling laughter echo before being swept away by the mild summer breeze. He stood up, and began running in one direction. Laughing with so much happiness, he had never felt this happy before. He came to a halt, a beautiful deer was standing before him. It was peacefully eating grass. It raised it’s head as it heard Keith’s footsteps slowing down. It looked at him and nodded. “_

_Welcome paladin” it said. Keith greeted in with a bow, as he felt it was appropriate. The creature before him was majestic in every possible way. He heard a sound. A bird, chirping a happy little melody, Keith sat down and took looked around. The flowers seemed to pop up out of the ground, they were a lot of different colors. One appeared right before the place he sat. He leaned over and plucked the flower out of the ground. It was a deep purple color, with places where it turned a lighter color. Keith touched one of the petals, it was soft like silk. He brought the flower close to his face, closed his eyes and smelled the flower._

_The fragrance was intense, sweet but sour, and it overpowered everything. As he opened his eyes, everything was turning dark and grey. He let out a scream as he saw the deer lying in the grass, looking very dead. Everything was rotting up slowly, and everything became darker. A hole opened up under him and he went plummeting into the depths of the earth. He landed on hard ground, it was lighter at the place he was now. He turned around spotting a lake._

_He looked at it, seeing small fish in the water. As he got closer, he caught his own reflection in the still water. Fangs, purple skin and haunting yellow eyes. He touched his reflection, and as he did, everything started dying as well. The fish turned upside down, now lying in the top of the water. The water was getting darker and more filthy and everything around him perished. Monster, you’re a monster Keith. They’ll kill you if they get the chance. Monster. Keith screamed another time, stumbling as he tried to run away, then he fell_ \- right onto the floor in his room.

The only sound in the room was the noise from Keith’s fast breaths. It had just been a nightmare. He slowed his breathing down. It hadn’t been real. He was okay. It wasn’t real. Just, a nightmare. Keith looked around in his room, it still looked lighter than it was supposed to. It was like his eyes had adjusted way better to the dark than ever before. Keith looked at the handful of hair he had left on the pillow, only to find what looked like a whole wig. The hair was spread all over the top half of the bed. Keith’s hand flew up to his head, but what he felt surprised him. He wasn’t missing hair by any means, it just felt like it had gotten thicker.

Keith pulled his hair lightly, but none of it fell out like it had did earlier. He tugged at it harder, but again, nothing happened. How did he grow new teeth and hair in no time? That was not normal. He had convinced himself that it must have been a disease earlier, but now he couldn’t believe that anymore. It just didn’t make sense. Keith felt an instinct tell him to get up and look in the mirror. He was sure of what he would find. Himself, with a little sharper teeth that usual and a bit of purple on his hand, nothing else. But even though he was positive that nothing else would look different, he still felt like he had to look at himself in the mirror. He sat up, and dragged his tired body up and over to the mirror. He scratched his itching neck, when he halted in his steps. Another chunk of skin had fallen off. Keith looked at his arm. He and his nails down the arm, scratching the skin off in the process. It practically just slided along his arm before falling off. Now all of his arm was purple. Wait. That shade of purple. It was the shade of a galra. How hadn’t he seen this before? And when you combined the new sharp fang-like teeth with the purple skin, Keith couldn’t see any other explanation. He didn’t know how, but he was slowly turning into a galra. Keith buried his face in his hands. How could he ever face the rest of the Voltron team looking like this. He was turning into the enemy, the very thing who was destroying the universe. Keith dragged his body over to the mirror, as the weird pain returned in his ears. He looked up, and it was too much to take in at once. His eyes were no longer the usual weird violet color. No, they were yellow and glowing. The whole eye, not just the irises. Infact, his irises were nonexistent.

As he studied his skin, which was normal (except for the places where the purple was visible because the skin had fallen off) his hair was now a deep purple color, it was darker than the purple on his skin. He took a deep breath and ripped the rest of his normal skin of his face. Without looking in the mirror, not wanting to see the monster he’d become, he started ripping the rest of his human skin off. The sounds it made when he ripped it off was almost traumatizing, it sounded like he was ripping himself apart, piece by piece. He looked up at himself in the mirror, and as he was standing there, mortified of his own reflection, his ears started to hurt so much, that he fell to the floor in pain. The pain ran through his body and it felt as if he had been electrocuted. He bit his lip hard trying not to scream, but as he felt his ears start to grow and rearrange, he couldn’t hold it in any longer. He let out the most pain filled scream his vocal cords could muster, his head lifting from the floor and as he went limp on the floor, he smacked his head down on the floor and everything went black. Keith had no idea how long it had been when he opened his eyes again. Some banging sound could be heard through his room. He flinched with every loud bang, it sounded incredibly loud.

“Keith?!” it was Pidge. “C’mon Keith answer!” this time Lance was the one to speak. The banging continued as Keith pushed himself up into a sitting position. “We heard you scream, are you alright Keith?” Shiro’s voice was filled with concern. Keith meant to answer with a calm voice, but the hurt shined through clearly. “I-I’m fine” Keith said, a low growl escaping, and a groan of pain. He heard Lance say something like wasn’t that the growl of a galra?! And he had the others worked up pretty quickly. He heard all of them outside his door, preparing to break it down. “Keith we are coming in!” Hunk yelled, as they all smashed and shot on the door. Nothing happened though. Keith let out a sigh of relief, this would give him more time. But more time to what? He wouldn’t be able to flee as his friends was posed outside the only exit. He couldn’t conceal his new looks, so all he could do was wait. Wait for them to come in and discover what had happened to him. His vision started blurring.

Was he crying? Yes, he was definitely crying. He bit his lip lightly, how would they react when they finally saw him? Would they shoot him? Interrogate him? Maybe, just maybe they would forgive him. Hope, he knew it was dangerous. But these people were his friends, his family. Sure they would find it in their hearts to forgive him for keeping this a secret. A louder bang brought Keith out of his thoughts, the door almost gave under the pounding of Shiro’s hand, he could hear Pidge, Hunk and Lance attack the door with their bayards as well. Keith braced himself. This was it, now was the moment where they either killed him, captured him or hugged him and assured that everything would be alright. Keith covered his ears and closed his eyes as the door finally broke down, finally giving in to the many beatings it had received from his fellow paladins.

The door exploded, if that was the right way to put it. A part of the door curled to the side, looking as if it has been melted. Probably the effects of Shiro’s galra tech hand, Keith wondered what would happen if Shiro used it on him. Keith shuddered, maybe he would find out soon. There was smoke everywhere when Keith finally opened his eyes fully, he took a deep breath but immediately coughed, the air filled with dust and smoke.

“Keith are you okay?” Lance yelled, his voice was a couple of meters away at the most. Keith squeezed his eyes shut, and tried not to panic. He rose up to stand his full height, what was he to do. The smoke cleared up a bit, and as it was instinct, Keith moved to a defensive position. Shiro was the first one to spot him, his eyes widened in both surprise and fear, before being narrowed, his eyebrows furrowing. Shiros hand powered up and before Keith could tell him that he wouldn’t hurt anyone, Shiro attacked. It was like Keith saw everything in slow motion, but without the power to do anything, not even move out of the way. Shiro’s hand burned a clear magenta, as it was swept towards him, Shiro’s hand came in contact with his stomach and Keith slid across the floor, only to stop when his back came in contact with the wall.

“Shiro, p-please stop” Keith said, as Shiro raised his arm to attack once again. Shiro halted, recognizing the voice and speaking pattern, giving Keith time to stand up again. But both Shiro and Lance acted quickly, seeing the galra as a threat. Shiro’s hand came in contact with the one of the soft spots on his stomach once again, just as Lance shot and hit his arm. The pain was overwhelming, The burns from shiro’s hand stung like someone had grounded salt in a wound, and the pain from Lance’s laser beam was all but comfortable. As Keith once again tried to gain footing, Pidge acted, swinging their wrist so their bayard wrapped itself around his wrists. Keith screamed in pain. The electric shock from it was the last thing he felt before he blacked out.

~*~

As Keith woke up, he felt an enormous pounding in his head. He groaned, as he pushed himself up in a sitting position with his hand, the other one draped over his face to protect his eyes from the sharp light. What had happened to him? He slowly removed his hand from his eyes, letting them adjust to the lightning in the room he was currently in. He looked around, taking in the details of his surroundings. The walls were plain and boring, a light gray color, the floor the same, though it had more marks on it. There were no windows, and the only light source in the room was a little lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. The door, was not exactly a door, but an opening in the wall with bars to keep anyone from going in or out. In this case, out. Keith rubbed his temples. They had caught him, put him in a cell. They hadn’t even heard him out. The only family Keith had, had now abandoned him. What was he supposed to do know? Sit in a cell and rot to death? Keith’s eyes teared up, but before the tear had a chance to run down his cheek and hit the floor, he wiped it away. He wouldn’t cry, he hadn’t cried over such things, ever. He would be strong, he would fend for himself. With words, not blades. Keith still felt miserable as he laid down on the cold floor again, his wounds tearing up a bit. He bit his tongue, holding in a whimper. How long would it be before they came for him?

To let him out, or to finnish him off for good. Keith had no idea which one it would end out with. He hoped for the best, but expected the worst. With these thoughts swirling around his head, he fell asleep a frown evident on his face. Keith was once again awakened, this time by the sound of a plate scraping along the floor. Keith flew up into a sitting position to see who was there. It was Pidge, who had an almost neutral expression though it changed into hate and fear as soon as Keith had flown up and most likely scared the wits out of them. Pidge jumped away from the cell Keith was in, just long away enough so Keith wouldn’t be able to reach them, Keith noted, his ears dropping out of sadness as he looked to the floor in shame. Pidge stood still for a few seconds before shifting the weight from one foot to another. But there was still silence, Keith looked up to see Pidges face. They opened their mouth, all ready and set to say something, but apparently Pidge changed their mind again, as they closed their mouth fast.

“Pidge if you have something to say, just say it. No one’s stopping you” Keith said, barely even loud enough for Pidge to hear him. But Pidge did hear him, and as if every barrier they had set for themselves was teared down, Pidge exploded in a fit of rage.

“DO YOU KNOW? DO YOU KNOW WHERE MY FAMILY IS KEITH, AND IS THAT EVEN YOUR REAL NAME” the words poured hastily and aggressively out of Pidges mouth. Their eyes were wide open, chest heaving up and down. They practically looked ready to rip Keith apart to get some information out of him. Keiths eyes widened in shock, he hadn’t been prepared for that accusation. He now understood Pidges hate against him. Their family, the most important thing in their life, had been taken away by the galra. But in Pidges eyes, he was one of them. So he was also to blame, and he could see why they would assume that.

“I-I, Pidge. I don’t know a-anything. I would ne-ever keep something like that from you. I, we’re friends, well we were i don’t know if you still consider us to be that anymore but still consider you my friend and I would never do that to you like ever” Keith started rambling towards the end, and he noticed a tear sliding down through the fur that now covered his cheek. Pidges hard stare softened, as did their whole complexion. But the expression of softness and pity was quickly replaced by uncertainty and mistrust, but not the hate he had seen earlier.

“Oh and as far as I know, my real name is Keith.” he said, trying to lighten the mood but it didn’t quite help. Pidge just nodded and then they left. Keith was once again left alone in the cold unwelcoming room, but after all it was a cell not a holiday resort. It wasn’t the intention to make the prisoners’ stay good, as they were only prisoners for one reason. They were the enemy. It dawned on Keith. They all saw him as the enemy, not just Pidge because of their family. They thought he was one of them, one of the galra. Or else they could’ve just made him stay in his room, they could temporarily lock his room’s door so he could not escape. It would have been a way nicer holding cell than this. How many actual galra had been captured and held here? And was he just another galra with the purple complexion and creepy glowing yellow eyes to them? Keiths eyes teared up again, he felt utterly lost and the sadness was almost unbearable. These people, the people he cared for the most had locked him in here! But what was he to do? He didn’t want to break out, he probably could, but that would only make him seem more hostile, more as an enemy. That was something Keith obviously didn’t want.

He sighed and dragged the plate with food, that Pidge had left, towards himself. He looked at the green goo, it was wobbly as he moved the plate. He giggled a little, it was like those weird colored jelly cakes he had once gotten at the garrison. The happiness quickly left Keith's mind again, it was once again overpowered by fear. He feared he had lost the most important things in his life. The Voltron team and the lions were the only important people in his life, and his only purpose was helping other planets and being in Voltron with his best mates. But that was all over now that he’d shown his true colors, literally. He sighed, he couldn’t change their mind though, not without his attempts backfiring on him. He picked up the fork and started picking at the food they had given him. At least they fed him right? They could’ve just let him starve if they wanted, they were afraid of him, but that didn’t make them cruel. It was understandable that Pidge was a bit aggressive towards him, he could’ve known something without them being aware. But sadly he knew nothing about Pidge’s family's whereabouts. He scooped up some of the goo and started eating. He didn’t feel like eating much, he just didn’t feel that hungry.

He pushed the plate away again, and sat with his back against the wall, his knees drawn up to his chest. Was he supposed to stay here for the rest of his life? What were they planning to do with him? Keith started to get a bit sleepy, he zoned out, everything turned into a hazy daze. Time passed by, Keith had no idea how long he had been sitting in the same position. It could’ve been 10 minutes, an hour, maybe 6 hours. Then someone came into the room. Keith didn’t feel sleepy anymore. He looked at where the noise came from.

It was Shiro. Keiths heart started thumping, he almost started hyperventilating, but he forced himself to control his breathing. He was sure he looked like a frightened deer, his eyes were big and he had made himself as little as possible. His knees drawn up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them. Shiro looked angry. No, he looked furious, and the hate in his eyes was clearly directed at Keith. Shiro had a plate of food in his galra tech hand, unlike Pidge, who had put it down carefully, Shiro let go of it, and kicked it inside of his cage. The green goo was all over the floor, both outside and inside the his prison cell. Keith flinched at the loud noise the plate had made when it hit the floor. He was lucky that he wasn’t hungry, or else he would’ve had to lick it up from the filthy floor. Keith made no move for the plate, and Shiro was standing absolutely still on the other side of the bars. Keith was concerned, why hadn’t Shiro said anything yet? He hadn’t even insulted him. Was Shiro feeling okay? Keith laughed mentally, Shiro hated Keith, he probably wanted to kill him, and here Keith was, concerned if the black paladin was feeling okay. He himself was sitting in a cage, a prison cell which Shiro and the others had put him in. Even though he knew the man hated him, he still cared about him, he cared for all of them.

“Shiro? A-are you okay?” Keith asked him, he couldn’t help himself. Shiro locked eyes with him, and then he flew forwards gripping the bar cells with both hands.

“Don’t try to play your little tricks on me, galra. I know what you’re doing and I won’t fall for it” Shiro snerred, he spat out the word galra as it was poison. “You’re a monster, you were never worthy of the red lion, you were never worthy of being the red paladin of voltron. You’re a despicable person” Shiro sneered. Then he let go of the bars. Keith felt his heart pumping faster than it had ever done before, it raced so fast that he thought it might jump out of his chest. The words that had been yelled at him finally sank in. The way Shiro had said galra, made him feel as if that was all he was to him now. He wasn’t Keith anymore, he was just another galra, another evil alien that should be killed. Shiro turned around and walked towards the exit, he stopped right in front of the door, and before going through it, he turned around and looked Keith straight into the eyes.

“I hate you” he said, before leaving. The words stung, Keith knew they were true. He had never heard anything more sincere than the three words. Keiths eyes burned, and a sob ripped through him, the tears started rolling down his cheeks. He laid down on the floor, the sound of his sobs echoing through the room. He knew that Shiro hated him, but hearing the words come from the man's mouth, come from the mouth of the person Keith cared for the most, hurt more than being whipped over and over again. Keith cried, he cried until he couldn’t cry any longer. It felt as if he hadn’t the least of tears back to shed. He was exhausted, and soon the darkness of sleep took over. He woke up a few hours later. He yawned, and rubbed his eyes. The fur under his eyes was stiff from all the salt from his tears. Keith’s eyes teared up just by the thought of yesterday. He tried to think of something else, he hummed a random tune as he stretched his back, he probably looked a lot like a cat doing so.

He looked at his fingernails, or maybe he should call them claws, then he looked at the floor, there were marks on the cold surface. Keith brought a claw to the floor and pressed it down against it and dragged. A high squeaky noise was made, and there was now another mark on the floor. Keith started to draw something absently, and soon it was starting to look like red. Or rather like a drawing of red drawn by a 6 year old kid. But that was besides the point, he suddenly felt heartbroken. What if he never got to see red again, were the other paladins that cruel? To keep him from red while he was alive would be absolute torture. He sighed, he really missed her.

The alarms came on. A loud _BEEP BEEP BEEP_ noise accompanied by red flashing lights. This could only mean one thing, the castle was under attack. Keith jumped to his feet. The others, his friends, were in danger. He had to get to them. He went for the prison bars keeping him in. He placed one hand on one bar and the other on the bar besides that. He tried to pull them apart, he put all of his strength into it, the bars groaned. He kept pulling and the bars groaned even louder. Then they gave out beneath the force of Keiths hand, one bar bended in an odd angle, the other one broke at the middle. He hadn’t created that big of a space for him to get out, but he could squeeze out of it if needed. And boy was it needed now. He squeezed his upper body through first, the broken bar felt uncomfortable against his soft stomach. As he forced his way through, he heard the yells of his friends. The galra had reached them, Keith pulled one last time and tumbled down on the floor on the other side. His stomach hurt, he glanced down to see a hole in his prisoner shirt and a nasty scratch which the bar had made. Keith didn’t care, he raced out of the room he had to help them. He turned right and ran as fast as he could, the walls and floors becoming a blur, he hadn’t really used his muscles since he had been caught in the prison, and they screamed for him to stop pushing them so hard. But Keith didn’t care. They needed him, he would never forgive himself if one of them got hurt, or even worse, if one of them died. He turned down another hall only to stand face to face with a galra, Keith was unarmed, but the galra had it’s back to him.

Keith jumped on it’s back, grabbed its head, and before the creature could react, he twisted the head forcefully. The galra soldier’s body went limp as a loud uncomfortable cracking noise echoed in the halls. Keith jumped and landed on his feet as the body hit the floor. He had to get to his room to retrieve the bayard, he couldn't fight them without. He had been lucky that the galra had had its back towards him. He wasn’t that far away from his room, he pressed his back up against the wall and slowly started moving. His ears twitched as he searched for any sound that might implicate a galra soldier was near. He didn’t hear any noises that was close so he ran down the hall that led to his room. He panted as the door came into view, it was still ruined. He had almost forgotten that Lance had shot it down. He stepped over the crater of the door and into his room. There were dust all over the place, footprint were visible. You could see where They had dragged Keith along the floor after he was made unconscious. Keith’s eyes locked on something on the wall. It was some kind of black substance that had been sprayed all over the place. It was his blood. Keith felt uneasy as it dawned on him. He forced himself to look away, he went to his bed and retrieved the bayard from under his pillow. He would give these galran motherfuckers hell. He raced out of his room, and out into the halls, he heard some yells from the kitchen, he activated his bayard as he ran in there. Inside Pidge and Coran were surrounded by galran soldiers, five of them in total. Keith ran towards the one that was about to jam his sword into Pidge’s back. He jammed his own sword through the galra’s chest and tackled it onto the ground so it couldn't use its last moments to kill Pidge.

“Keith how did yo-” Pidge started, but Keith cut her off, there was a galra charging at them. “PIDGE LOOK OUT” he yelled, they wouldn’t be able to react in time, so Keith shoved Pidge out of the way and cut the galra’s head of in one cut. The room was silenced for a moment, as the body went limp and the head rolled along the floor, leaving a trail of dark blood. Then the remaining three galras let out a unified battle roar and attacked. Keith blocked an attack, as he saw Pidge wrapping their bayard around a galra’s ankle and yanked so it hit the floor. Coran was fending a galra of with a frying pan, he was slightly less successful in his attack. Keith jammed the handle of his sword down into the face of the galra attacking him, and the galra went down. He then aided Coran, he shoved his sword into the stomach of the galra and then Coran smacked the Galra in the head, and then the galra went down as well. Meanwhile Pidge had wrapped the galra up, and Keith proceeded to hit it in the head with the handle of his sword. He panted as the last galra in the room went down, he looked at Pidge and Coran. He turned towards Pidge and hugged them, Pidge tensed up at first but then hugged back.

“Thank god you’re okay, I just saw the galra almost kill you and I’ve never reacted that fast in my life” Keith hugged them even tighter, then remembered the situation of Pidge currently hating his guts. He let go and put Pidge down, so their feet was actually touching the floor. Keith had gotten higher and bulkier after his transformation, and suddenly Pidge seemed even smaller. He backed away from her, and made himself look smaller, he didn’t want to feel as a threat. “I-I’m sorry Keith, for accusing you of being a traitor.” Pidge said as they surged forwards and hugged Keith, they may be small but it felt like they were squeezing the life out of Keith. “Pidge, c-can’t… breathe” he said, or tried saying, Pidge laughed as they let go, but they quickly stopped.

“I just really want you to know that I’m sorry and it’s fine if you don’t forgive me, I didn’t even believe that there was any other explanation than you being a spy” Pidge said, their shoulders sunk and their head hanging low. Coran then interrupted their moment. “I’m sorry, but we should keep moving, there are probably more galra.” he said. “You’re right, if you two go right and take the east part of the castle then I’ll take the west side” Keith said, he walked to the door “be careful” he said right before running towards the west part of the castle. He walked further, slowly and as careful as he could. The galra had great hearing so if he made too much noise, they would know that he was there. But he had an advantage as well, they didn’t know that any on the Voltron team were galra, so they weren’t too careful with making noise. Both Alteans and Humans heard worse than the galra. He was coming closer to the training deck when he heard the sound of Galra soldiers. Two of them. As he listened closer, he heard the heavy breathing of a person. It had to be Shiro, he was in there with the galra and by the sound of his irregular breathing suggested that he wasn’t in a good enough shape to fight and actually walk out of there as the survivor. Keith activated his bayard again, the hallway he was standing in was formed as a T. To the right of him were Shiro, and to the left were the two galra soldiers. None of them had detected Keith yet. “Look who we have here Thurax, if it isn’t the champion” one of the guards taunted Shiro. Champion was the name they had given Shiro when he had been forced to fight other people to death in the Arena when he had been held prisoner by the galra. Keith knew it was a part of his past that Shiro would like to forget.

“What do you think we should do to him? It’s not like Zarkon need him, he still has a form of bond to the black lion” the other one answered. What? Did Zarkon still have a bond with the black lion? That would surely explain why he was able to use the black bayard even though he technically isn’t the black paladin.

“How about we have a little fun” Keith couldn’t see the soldiers face, but he didn’t need to to be able to imagine the smirk on his face. In that moment Keith reacted, they were talking about hurting Shiro, and no fucking way in hell he would let that happen. He didn’t care if Shiro still didn’t trust him afterwards and decided to kill him, all that mattered that moment was Shiro's survival. He prayed to the god he didn’t believe in and threw himself into battle with the loudest battleroar (literally) he had ever mustered. Both the galra soldiers and Shiro were surprised to see him. He didn’t get to see Shiro’s face for more than a millisecond, his focus was on the guards and more importantly, killing them before they killed him and Shiro. The first guard was very big and muscular, while the other were smaller. Keith went for the bigger one first, maybe Shiro could handle the small one on his own, and if he couldn’t, then Keith would hopefully be able to take care of him. “Don’t you dare touch him” Keith sneered as he lunged into battle. The galra were confused to see a galra fighting against them, until they saw the red bayard. They quickly realised the truth, but they didn’t get the chance to think further about it as Keith went for the biggest galras neck. The bigger galra, probably the one called Thurax, dodged out of the way, but Keith’s sword nicked his ear. A part of the ear fell to the ground, Keith had sliced it off in one clean cut. The galra roared in pain, he took a swing at keith leg, Keith yelled out in pain as he felt the blood run down his pants and into a little puddle on the floor. Thurax was distracted for a moment, bragging about his “victory” and Keith took the opportunity and struck the sword right in the galra’s unprotected stomach. Thurax fell to the ground groaning.

Keith didn’t waste a moment, he turned around and kicked the other galra in the chest, he fell to the ground and Keith hit the galra in the head with the handle of his sword. He did it, he saved Shiro. His chest rose and fell very fast, and his breath was the only sound that was heard in the hall. He slowly turned around to face Shiro. He might’ve saved him but that didn’t mean that Shiro trusted him. Shiro was sitting on his knees on the floor, his shoulders tense and face frozen in chock. Chock, not fear.

“Shiro did you get hurt? Are you okay?” Keith asked him as he deactivated his bayard and raced over to the Black paladin, he stopped a couple of feet away from Shiro so he wouldn’t make him uncomfortable. “I-I think my left ankle is sprained” Shiro said, that would explain why he hadn’t done anything in the galra guard situation. Keith walked the last distance that was between the two of them, Shiro seemed like he was on guard.

“Is it okay if I hold you up to support you? I don’t want to leave you here in case some galra jerks come through” Keith said, looking concerned at Shiro. Shiro hesitated but then nodded. Keith hoisted him up from the ground and wrapped one arm around Shiro’s torso, then he held onto the arm that Shiro hand placed around his neck. Keith and Shiro walked slowly towards the medical bay, which was the safest part of the ship. Keith and Shiro walked in silence, and the silence grew to become awkward. But Keith had no idea what to say. Keith could feel Shiro’s body shake, part of it was probably because of adrenaline, but Keith was afraid that he was a part of the reason as well. Shiro had a very bad past with galras, to put it lightly, and to see Keith looking like the people who tortured him and cut his arm off, well that must wake some sort of fear in him. Keith and Shiro had made it to the medical bay, but there was absolutely no sign from the others. They hadn’t heard anything from the galras either. Keith put Shiro down on a chair, and brought him a little box he could rest his foot on so it wouldn’t hurt when touching the floor.

“Are you going to be okay here alone Shiro?” Keith asked “I’ve only heard something from Pidge and Coran, I have no idea if Hunk, Lance and Allura are alright…” Shiro nodded, Keith turned around to walk away so he could find his friends. Keith had expected Shiro to say something, anything. But he didn’t, so Keith kept walking, he had to find his teammates, and possibly save them. Keith raced down the halls to go to the east side of the castle, it was his only idea of where the rest might be. As he ran, his feet slamming against the floor, he remembered what Shiro had said to him. You’re a monster, you were never worthy of the red lion, you were never worthy of being the red paladin of Voltron. You’re a despicable person Keith’s eyes teared up, but he angrily wiped the one tear that escaped his eyes and kept running. Now was not the time for self pity. He knew who he was, and maybe he wasn’t worthy of the red lion, few were, but he knew he would never act like a monster even though he might have the DNA of one. He turned around a corner to see Pidge trying to drag Lance away and Hunk with Allura and Coran in his arms. There were unconscious galras all over the floor and the room reeked of blood.

“Are you guys okay, do you need any help?” Keith asked them as he ran into the room. Hunk screamed and activated his bayard, taking aim. “Hunk, for the love of god, put that down, it’s just Keith you paranoid bastard” Pidge said as they rolled their eyes. Hunk relaxed a bit, but then tensed up. “How are you not in your cell anymore?” Hunk asked, looking at Keith suspiciously. “The alarms went off and I heard screams, I got really worried and before I knew it, I had bent the bars of the cell enough for me to get out” Keith said and shrugged. “He saved me and Coran earlier” Pidge said, “it’s okay Hunk, Keith is still our friend” Keith smiled at Pidge’s kind words and then remembered their three unconscious friends. He walked over to Pidge who had almost given up on ever carrying Lance alone, and sweeped Lance up in his arms.

“Let’s go, Shiro’s in the Med bay, I helped him earlier but his ankle is hurt” Keith informed them. Pidge followed right away, Hunk hesitated a bit, but then deemed it safe and walked behind Pidge with Coran and Allura thrown over his shoulders. As they walked, Keith looked down at Lance. He had a couple of bruises on blooming up on his cheeks and jaw. His breathing was ragged and uneven, Keith started worrying more about Lance with every passing second. Coran and Allura looked like they were in a better state than the blue paladin. At least Keith had learned how to turn on the healing pods, he wasn’t sure if Coran and Allura would wake up anytime soon. They didn’t seem to be in danger because of their injuries, Lance on the other hand would need to spend some time in a healing pod. Keith looked back at Hunk and Pidge, they both seemed like they were drained of energy, which was understandable. Keith was starting to feel like he had no energy left as well, his arms were beginning to go numb. They finally reached the med bay, where Shiro was sitting with his injured foot. He looked up at them when he heard the noise of them entering the room. “You’re okay!” Shiro exclaimed, before looking at the unconscious Lance in Keith's arms. “Almost, at least” he added after taking another look at the injured paladin and the unconscious alteans in Hunk’s arms. Keith huffed under his breath, Lance was very heavy in his arms. He took the last steps towards one of the healing pods and slowly put Lance in. He sighed and stretched his arms. It was nice to finally have his arms rest. He rubbed the spot between his eyebrows, a small yawn slipped through as he went on to turn the healing pod on. He went to the “person” section, luckily the pods were coded with settings for each of the paladins so it was quicker for them to turn the pod on if there was an emergency. He clicked on the little square with Lance’s face in it and the pod closed around Lance. Now all he could do was wait.

The exhaustion hit him again, but this time it felt like someone had thrown a brick right in his face. He yawned even louder, and stumbled over to a chair on the other side of the healing pod. He sat down and as he did, it hit him just how exhausted he was and how much his body hurt. He groaned in discomfort, but not very loud. There were no sounds in the medical bay, except for the heavy breathing coming from every paladin and the humming of the healing pod. A thought struck Keith, would he have to go back in the cell now that his friends weren’t in danger? No, they would probably find another place to put him right? He literally bended the other bars. Should he ask them now, or wait until the others were conscious? He should probably just ask now, if they didn’t want him there they were probably pretty uncomfortable right now. Keith sighed.

“Do you want me to go back to my cell?” he asked, breaking the growing silence in the room. All heads turned to look at him. He chose to look at Shiro. Hunk and Pidge had accepted him, or at least had made huge progress in not hating him. The question had been presented to all of them, but it was obviously meant most for Shiro. Shiro didn’t answer right away, Keith didn’t even have the energy to get dissapointed. Of course Shiro hadn’t jumped up from the place he was sitting and hugged Keith and welcomed him back. Keith waited for an answer, he didn’t really know if he would get it anytime soon. Shiro seemed to have an internal discussion with himself. He wouldn’t have said no under any circumstances, but he hadn’t said yes right away either. So even though he probably had negative feelings towards Keith, then maybe it was strongly dislike instead of outright hate. There was only what seemed to be growing silence between all of them, Keith started to feel uncomfortable.

He looked over at Pidge, and their eyes met. He tried to hint that they had to do something. He was basically screamed “HELP” with his eyes. Pidge nodded and gave him thumbs up, very subtle thumbs up hidden behind their thigh. They pushed up their glasses, then turned to Hunk and Shiro.

“It wouldn’t be a good idea to send him back to the cells, he is clearly capable of breaking out of them, so that wouldn’t work out if we wanted to contain him” Pidge said. They had calculated every single word, Keith noticed. They hadn’t said anything to hint that they were against locking him up. Shiro nodded at the words they had spoken, and Hunk joined in. “We could just send him to his room? If we ban him from opening the door with his hand, then he wouldn’t be able to come out” Hunk said,

“it would be a nicer cell” Keith knew Hunk didn’t actually want to lock him up, he was just trying to come with better alternatives to the situation. After all, Shiro could want to lock him up and Keith prefered his room to the cold cells. Shiro was still thinking, his eyes furrowing. He sighed. “It will do for now, but only until Allura is awake, I need to discuss this with her.” Shiro said, looking over at Keith. Pidge and Hunk looked at each other with masked happiness. Keith smiled carefully so the two could see that he appreciated their effort, it would be nice to sleep in his own bed. “I'll just go and block his handprint” Hunk said, turning around to leave.

“Hey wait up, I'll come with you” Pidge exclaimed as they raced after Hunk. Those sneaky bastards, Keith was now all alone with Shiro, that was if you didn't count the 3 unconscious people of course. Keith looked away from Shiro, trying to avoid his gaze. His eyes stopped at Shiro's ankle, it was bruised and a bit swollen up. He tried to move it, but let out a small pained sound.

“Shiro, are you alright?” Keith said, then he added “Do you want to go to the healing pod to get that fixed up?” Shiro looked at him suspiciously,

“so you have a chance to run away or what?” Keith could not believe what he heard. Shiro knew that he would never run, how could he even accuse him of something like that? They had known each other for years and Shiro seriously thought that he would flee? Keith took a deep breath.

“No Shiro, I do not want to run away, neither would I attempt it. I was merely concerned for your well being as I care a great deal about you” Keith said, looking him square in the eyes, not moving his gaze even when it became uncomfortable.

Shiro sighed. “I’ve been a bit of a dick haven’t I?” he said, not expecting an answer. Keith looked at Shiro, surprised that he actually saw how his behaviour might not have been okay.

Keith nodded, “but it is justified, you’ve had a lot of horrible experiences and when someone who’s close to you are literally related to the monsters who tortured you… Well, you’re bound to be a bit tense around them” Keith said, looking at his feet.

“Look, I’m- I’m sorry Keith for the way I’ve treated you. Even after you saved my life” Shiro said, his eyes getting a bit misty. He drew a breath, but shakingly.

“And- I’m sorry I made you feel like you weren’t welcome and treated you like garbage, didn’t trust you, said hateful things to you, when I knew I was the only person who has been your family for years, and for hurting you with my hand and for making Lance shoot you and for making the others distrustful towards you too” Keith blinked, he was actually pretty shocked. Shiro had just apologized to him, and not a shallow one, but he admitted every single thing he had done that was wrong of him.

Keith looked up at the man he’d loved as a big brother for years, only to see that a tear rolled down his cheek. Keith approached him carefully, and then embraced him. Shiro was still sitting down, so his face ended up being pressed against Keith’s chest. Shiro wrapped his arms around Keith’s stomach and hugged tight. Keith’s eyes stung and he and Shiro ended up crying together. Shiro could feel Keith shake as he drew in a breath.

“I’m really sorry Keith, I- I was blinded by hate. I love you okay? You’re the best brother in the world and I never want to see you leave” Shiro said, almost sobbing.

“I love you too Shiro, thank you, for being so amazing and apologizing, and still loving me after all you’ve been through” Keith said, a tear dripping from his chin and landing in Shiro’s hair. They let go of each other, and Keith took a step back so he and Shiro could look at each other. Keith cracked a smile, Shiro’s face lightened up and he smiled back. “Are we okay? Probably no, there’s a long way to go. But I love you Keith and I always will” Shiro said.

“You’re family, and you’re not replaceable”

“I love you too Shiro, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you when I first saw the signs. We could’ve worked this out together, as a team and as a family…” Keith said, feeling a bit ashamed of himself.

“Cut it out Keith, it’s all in the past, and resolved for that matter.” Shiro said smiling, and for the first time in months, the smile reached his eyes.

“We still have to talk to Lance, Coran and Allura…” Keith said.

“It’ll be a while before they gain consciousness, but I’ll be there, and so will Pidge and Hunk” Shiro said.

“We will be there for you”

Keith smiled, he knew they would.

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr's  
> http://miraculoustrashforever.tumblr.com/  
> https://miraculous-voltron-ao3.tumblr.com/  
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/galra-keithling - this is were I generally post about Voltron
> 
> The second one is where I post if I've posted a new work on AO3


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